Son -in -law for 5 million

The Russian hacker, for the capture of which the FBI promises a reward of $ 5 million, turned out to be the son -in -law of Eduard Bendersky, the Veter Special Forces Veteran of the FSB "Vympel", the heads of the same association of private security enterprises and a participant in scandals associated with hunting for red -blown animals.

On December 5, the US Department of Finance imposed sanctions against 17 people, including 12 Russians, whom the United States and UK special services are accused of embezzlement from 2011 more than $ 100 million from banks, companies and individuals. We are talking about the hacker group of Evil Corp, which US Minister of Finance Stephen Mnuchin called "one of the most prolific cyber residents in the world." The main person in Evil Corp FBR calls the 32-year-old resident of Moscow Maxim Yakubz. The American and British authorities claim that the Yakubets, for the information about which was promised a reward of $ 5 million, was engaged in hacker activity not only for personal enrichment, but also in the interests of the FSB. Radio Freedom found out that Maxim Yakubets is really connected with this Russian special service: in 2017, he married the daughter of a former FSB special forces officer Eduard Bendersky, the head of the same association of private security enterprises and the charity fund, as well as a fan of hunting for red -blown animals.

"Universe of two planets"

In the summer of 2017, in the Golf Club, near Moscow, Targeevo among the picturesque hills at the Dmitrovskoye Shosse played a gorgeous wedding. Especially for her, a huge structure with classic palace interiors and an impressive hexagonal podium were erected. “She saw her wedding exclusively classic luxurious pionova, but on the contrary - only modern and technological,” the Karamel agency, which organized the celebration, described the wish of the bride and groom. On the agency’s website, photos and videos from the “Wedding of Alena and Maxim” were preserved (they were deleted between December 6 and 9, 2019, an archival copy has been preserved): the bride is preparing for the ceremony, now the father leads it to the catwalk, the guests are dancing under the performance of Leonid Agutin. These shots, similar to any other pictures with the road of Russian wedding, have one feature: it is impossible to distinguish between the faces of the groom. It stands with his back, then it turns out to be accidentally covered by the bride’s body. The father of the bride appears in one of the videos also only from the back: his stocky, powerful figure and a small bald head are visible on a short -cut head.

Wedding "Alena and Maxim", remote photography from the website of the Karamel Wedding Agency

Who are these two mysterious men without faces, related on such a grand scale? A joint group of investigators from the American FBI, as well as the British National Crime Agency ( NCA ) and the National Cybersecurity Center ( NCSS ) claim that the groom is Maxim Yakubets , the head of one of the most dangerous hacker groups of recent years of Evil Corp. Radio Liberty managed to establish who became his father -in -law: this is a veteran of the Special Party of the FSB "Vympel" and the head of the charitable foundation of the same name, as well as one of the most famous Russian hunters Eduard Bender .

We were able to do this thanks to social networks and the official register of Russian legal entities. On the website of the British National Crime Agency, the only photograph was published that, according to this department and the FBI, was taken in 2017 at the wedding of Maxim Yakubz (the same picture in the best resolution was published in the article of the American publication Vice ). Using the search for Google images, we found a report on this “Alena and Maxim’s wedding” on the website of the wedding agency, and then, according to the characteristic details, we established that the wedding was held in Zeleevo - a gazebo located on the territory of this club, you can see in other pictures from there.

In the now remote publication on the website of the Karamel agency, a video was also inserted, still available on Vimeo video hosting. On one of his frames you can see the bride's face close -up. Using the FindClone Radio Service, Liberty found several pictures of Alena on the pages of VKontakte users, on one of them ( the original , saved copy ), her Instagram account is indicated - @alenchik ___ 77. It was written with an error, but having rearranged the lower underputs, Radio Liberty discovered the correct link: this is a closed page , the only open information in the profile description until today was an indication of the Alenchik type in English-“Co-upner, Plein Sport Moscove”. We are talking about the network of Moscow boutiques of the Plein Sport brand (the sports line of the Italian brand Philipp Plein ), which opened shortly before the very wedding in the shopping centers "Metropolis" and "Seasons". In the period from December 6 to 9, 2019, this phrase was removed from the description of the profile "Alenchik__777".

Bride from the wedding "Alena and Maxim", a screenshot from the video on the website of the wedding agency "Karamel"

From an interview , which in October 2017, entrepreneur Julia Kozhukalova gave the Rostov website of the publication "dog.ru", it follows that the opening of these stores was engaged in the company "Image Line". In the “Contour. Fokus” database there are several legal entities with similar names, one of them, LLC “Image Line Sport”, is headed by Julia Valentinovna Kozhukalova, and it was established by Otari Leonidovich Sadov and Alena Eduardovna Bender.

Alena Benderskaya is one of the founders and other companies, in particular Vimpel-Aktiv LLC and Vimpel-Protect LLC. These firms are partners of the Vympel group association, combining projects related to former employees of the Vimpel detachment of the FSB/KGB. Alena Eduardovna is also included in the Youth Executive Committee of the Vympel charitable foundation. The head of the fund is Eduard Valentinovich Bender , who served in Vimpel in the early 1990s and headed the veteran organization of the unit, and now the head of the charitable foundation of the same name. Alena Eduardovna Benderskaya, as follows from the base of the Legal Entities "Contour Focus", is also the director of two companies established by Eduard Bender and engaged in real estate management - Netwels and Vels Holder.

Eduard Bender, 2012

Are the “bride” Alena, who calls himself on Instagram “co -owner” of the Plein Sport chain of stores, and Alena Bender, the actual co -owner of the image Line Sport LLC, the same person? In the Instagram account of the Moscow chain of Plein Sport stores there are several pictures from the opening of the first Plein Sport boutique in the Metropolis shopping center. On two of them, Alena-Vyazhta was photographed with Otari Sadov, the second co-owner of the "image of Line". In the comments on another photograph of Alenka_77_ and Julia Kozhukalova (General Director "Image Line Sport") congratulate each other on the opening of the store.

In another frame, Alena-Error is captured with a woman, very similar to Jeanne Bender , the wife of Edward Bender and mother Alena Eduardovna Bender, whose appearance is known for the secular chronicle . This picture was removed from the Plein Sport Moscow account between December 6 and 9, but Radio Liberty has its screenshot.

Alena Bender (left) at the opening of the Plein Sport boutique

Left: Zhanna Bender and Alena Bender at the opening of the Plein Sport boutique, in the center: Jeanne Bender and Eduard Bender, on the right: Zhanna Bender

Alena's father with a wedding video with his figure and bald head is very similar to Eduard Bender, who can be well examined, including from the back, in numerous videos about the "mountain hunting" of the Wild TV channel. The totality of these observations leaves no doubt that Alena from wedding photographs and Alena Eduardovna Benderskaya, the daughter of Edward Bender, is the same person.

Eduard Bender: on the left - photo TASS, right at the top - frame from the Wild TV program, on the bottom right - frame from the video from the wedding "Alena and Maxim"

Photo by Eduard Bender at the wedding of his daughter and Maxim Yakubz

The day after the publication of the material Radio Liberty about Maxim Yakubz, December 10, we managed to find another video from the wedding of Maxim and Alena. It is published on the website of the production company Max \ Max Productions, which participated in the organization of the celebration in the golf club of Tshelevo. This video differs from others like literally a few personnel, on one of which Eduard Bender and his wife Zhanna is clearly visible among the guests.

The second on the left on this frame is another member of the Club of Mountain Hunters, led by Eduard Bender, deputy of the Magadan City Duma from the United Russia party Igor Dontsov . On the club’s website there is his photo with a bloodied mountain ram. In May 2016, Vostok.todey wrote that Dontsov became one of the “record holders” among officials and deputies of the Magadan region for declared income: in 2015 he earned 164.4 million rubles, declaring 19 vehicles and 32 property property.

Photos from the Plein Sport Moscow account can indirectly confirm that the hacker Maxim Yakubets became the husband of Alena Bender. The British-American investigation group posted pictures of several sports cars from the fleet, which was used by members of the hacker group Evil Corp. This is Lamborghini Hurricane , Audi R8 and Nissan GTR . Judging by the video posted by the journalists of the Vice publication, these cars were repeatedly repainted.

In the Instagram account of the Plein Sport boutiques, several images of Alena Bender, taken inside the Lamborghini and Audi R8 salons, they, like most Alena photographs, were removed from this account between December 6 and 9. Here is the screenshot of one of the photographs that has survived (was available on this link ): Alena in the Lamborghini salon. Another, not yet remote frame from the same account, you can distinguish between the Nissan GTR car, branded by the Plein Sport logo and having the registration number M700AK66. Previously, the same number was noticed in the Audi R8 car. Both models are available in the Evil Corp fleet.

Alena Benderskaya in the Lamborghini salon, remote photo from the Instagram account of the Plein Sport store

Brended Nissan GTR in the Instagram account of the Plein Sport store, with a license plate, previously noticed on the Audi of one of the participants of the Hacker Group Evil Corp

Red Book Baranes

Eduard Bendersky carefully made sure that his photographs did not appear among the pictures from his daughter’s wedding (in this regard, he demonstrated even a greater level of conspiracy than the head of the “secret” military unit Andrei Averyanov , which was previously written by Radio Liberty and at the wedding of the daughter of which we managed to find the “Salisbury poisoner” Anatoly Chepiga). Nevertheless, in ordinary life, he is a rather public figure-not least because of the scandals accompanying his name.

From the official biography of Eduard Bendersky, on the website of the Vympel charitable foundation, it follows that he was born in 1970 in the family of a soldier, in 1991 he graduated from the Ryazan airborne school, served in a separate training center of the KGB of the USSR (the same group of Vympel). In 1994, he resigned to the reserve and three years later headed by the Private security company Vimpel-A, and in 2002-"Association of Enterprise" Vimpel-A ", dealing with security issues. Now this is one of the largest Joint Associations in Russia. From 2003 to 2008, Eduard Bender’s regional public organization of special-purpose Groups of State Security Groups “Vympel”, “providing comprehensive assistance to veterans of special services, existing units, families of the dead and wounded employees of the FSB of Russia”. Russian special services for the murder of a Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin.

Among other things, Eduard Bender is also an avid hunter , and he prefers to hunt on red -Book animals. In September 2016, about six months before the wedding of the daughter of Bendersky and Maxim Yakubz, the “Mountain Hunters Club”, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government, Alexander Khloponin, led by Bendersky, to give this organization the right to shoot five Putoran rams. In exchange, Bendersky promised the chiloenine to finance the programs for the protection of this subspecies of rams in the amount of 15,000,000 rubles. Khloponin sent this letter to the Ministry of Nature and Rosprirodnadzor, ordering to support the initiative of Bender and to develop the appropriate "pilot bill". Bender himself motivated the admissibility of the shooting of Putoran rams in the fact that after 12 years their individuals no longer participate in reproduction and their destruction will not have a negative impact on the population of these Red Book animals.

Whether it was possible to ultimately implement this "pilot project", Radio Freedom failed to find out. Bendersky was even accused of using their ties at the highest level for lobbying for amendments to the laws that are beneficial to Braaconers hunters. In 2013, he resigned from the post of head of the All -Russian Association of Public Associations of Hunters and Fishermen "Association of Rosokhotrybolovsoi", but, according to rumors of ill -wishers, did not actually lose control of this organization, making it the head of his protege.

For a couple of hours, I kill animals on TV. Horror. Just now, Eduard Bender, in our MO, he filled up the snowster Pic.twitter.com/fs4nvbhrwa

- Rosfulnadzor (@cruiserom) January 23, 2016

The name of Bendersky appeared in the news not only because of the scandal with the shooting of the Red Book Baranes, but also in connection with the plans of the Russian company Lukoil to use the services of his private security companies from the Vimpel association to protect oil fields in Iraq . Back in 2003, as the New Gazeta wrote (now the publication is not available, but its copy has been preserved here ), Bender actually advertised the Vympel services on television, speaking on his behalf in various television programs. During one of them, he commented on the actions of special forces in the theater center on Dubrovka on the time of them, which caused the anger of the former fighters of the FSB special forces group "Alpha", who found this by the disclosure of secret information about the methods of special forces in critical situations. As stated with reference to the unnamed Alpha in the publication of Novaya Gazeta, private security enterprises of Bendersky existed "under the roof" of the special purpose of the FSB and its leader, General Alexander Tikhonov . According to the "Top Secret" publication, it was Tikhonov who was the initiator of the "Ryazan exercises", which became a reason for suspicion that the Russian special services themselves organized explosions of houses in Moscow in September 1999 to bring Vladimir Putin to power.

Of the recent mention of Eduard Bender in the media, the publication of the publication “Sign” that the Bender hunting club, along with the Rossnaiping association, is seeking to recognize “high -precision shooting” in the sport, hoping to make the main shooting of the federal base of special forces in Chechnya.

Conclusion

On Monday, December 9, the Medusa publication found out the identity of another hacker from Evil Corp , which appears in the sanctions lists of the US Ministry of Finance. Behind the name "Andrei Plotnitsky", according to the publication, the son of the former mayor of the Khimki, Vladimir Strelchenko, Andrei Kovalsky , was actually hidden. To detect traces of the alleged head of Evil Corp Maxim Yakubz in the not yet remote accounts of his acquaintances and acquaintances of his alleged wife Radio Liberty has not yet been able to. The phone of Eduard Bender, for whose son -in -law a reward of $ 5 million was scheduled, did not answer on Monday, but the Executive Director of the Club of Mountain Hunters, Alexander Gomonov, assured Radio Liberty that he transferred our questions to the Bender Secretariat. We also failed to contact Alena Bender: the phone indicated as the contact of most legal entities headed or established by her does not answer.